| Category | CHEM | P01 | Do Essential Oils Work |
| Abstract | Do essential oils work? How do they work and what can they be used |
| for? These are some of the questions explored in this science project. |
| Essential oils are compounds, complex chemical substances and have |
| been used for thousands of years to fight bacteria and mold. |
| Experiments were performed to test essential oils with both bacteria and |
| bread mold. This was done to determine whether certain essential oils |
| have antibacterial and/or antifungal properties. |
| Certain essential oils were made to be tested on bacteria and bread |
| mold. These consisted of the same kinds as the ones which were |
| purchased from Whole Foods Store and a pharmacy. They were basil, |
| cinnamon, clove, lavender, lemongrass, nutmeg, and vanilla. After |
| these essential oils were made, all of the oils the homemade and the |
| store-bought ones were tested on agar plates swabbed with bacteria. |
| Some essential oils were also tested on bread mold swabbed on agar |
| plates. The bread mold was only tested with cinnamon, clove, lavender, |
| lemongrass, and vanilla. None of the store-bought essential oils were |
| tested with the bread mold. |
| The homemade essential oils mostly worked better; preventing the |
| growth of bacteria on agar plates, while the purchased ones generally |
| did not work as well. Some essential oils performed better than others. |
| Lavender essential oils worked well on both mold and bacteria. The |
| growth of mold was also somewhat prevented by the lemongrass |
| essential oil. |
| Some essential oils have antifungal properties which can help with |
| infections caused by fungi, which have become hard to treat with |
| medicine. The antibacterial and antifungal properties of essential oils |
| can allow them to be used instead of medicines such as antibiotics |
| when these medicines cannot be used. |
| Bibliography | Cavanagh, H. M., and J M. Wilkinson. "Biological Activities of Lavender |
| Essential Oil." |
| www.interscience.willey.com, Wiley InterScience, 20 Mar. 2002. |
| Accessed 8 Dec. 2016.Liakos, Ioannis L., Mohamed H. Abdallatif, |
| Claudia Innocenti, Alice Scarpellini, and Riccardo Carzino. |
| "Antimicrobial Lemongrass Essential Oil - Copper Ferrite Cellulose |
| Acetate Nanocapsules." www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules, Molecules, |
| 20 Apr. 2016. Accessed 8 Dec. |
| |
| 2016. |